Field
The field relates generally to poultry processing and more particularly to handling, growing and transporting live poultry.
Background Art
Loading and unloading birds and transportation of live birds from the hatchery stage through the kill stage at a production facility is a challenging task. The birds have to be gathered, contained and transferred to a transport means and subsequently unloaded with minimal damage or harm to the animal, which is challenging because birds instinctively resist such movement. For example, transport of live poultry from the hatchery to colony systems in growing houses and from growing houses to processing facilities is required. One method of transport of live poultry is containing the birds in cages and stacking the cages on a truck with a flatbed trailer for transport. Loading and unloading trailers with live animals, particularly from a location where the animals are grown or raised to a processing facility, can in the case of chickens, increase the stress level of the animal. With heightened stress, animals are more likely to have increased body temperature, experience bruising, dislocated wing/leg joints and potential tissue damage along with an increased pH level, which may affect the quality of the muscle. Once the birds are captured in cages, the cages are loaded on the trailer.
Existing systems involve crews of catchers to unload the birds from the growing colonies and load them for transport means. Loading of the cages on the trailer consumes the full time of one operator to move cages from the house or growing area to the trailer and it requires skill to stack cages on the trailer so that they can be properly secured for transport. The cages often become damaged in this operation over time and need to be repaired and eventually replaced. Damage to the cages often involves damaged doors through which the birds are inserted. Poorly operating doors leads to increased time to load cages and can potentially result in harm to the birds.
There are significant labor issues because the process of transporting and transferring birds is very labor intensive and requires some level of skill and training. There are health issues for both the birds and the handlers. The labor intensive handling of the birds promotes the transmission of infections to the handler and risks harm to the birds. This results in numerous health and safety concerns. The cages or other transport containers also have to be cleaned prior reuse, which can also be a labor intensive and costly effort.
In the catching process, the poultry are placed into cages. Some cage designs consist of “drawers” and can vary from 10 to 15 drawers averaging a 20-25 bird capacity per drawer. Birds can be placed into the cages either manually or by semi-automatic means. A forklift then can load a flatbed truck with 18-22 cages that are stacked in pairs. Once the cages are in place, each stack has to be secured by chains to the frame of the trailer.
Semi-automated methods of harvesting the birds in the houses have encountered mechanical and functional problems. In one sense this semi-automated method eliminates the need for operators to physically pick up the birds. However, operators are still needed to operate the equipment and to move the birds forward and away from the sides of the house. Therefore, some handling is still necessary.
Plastic poultry trays or drawers are sometimes used to transport and house birds temporarily, however, these systems are temporal and only used during certain stages and are not integral with growing systems or transport systems. Use of such trays or drawers still require significant handling of birds, though they may be somewhat more durable than metal cages.
As noted above, problems occur with, loading, unloading, harvesting, placing birds into cages (plastic drawers or trays), loading the cages on a transport, and transporting to the processing facilities. Also, current processes are labor intensive and costly. The problems occur as the DOC (Day Old Chicks) are transitioned from the hatcheries to the growing centers and then to the production facilities. A new system and method for harvesting, loading, growing, transporting, and unloading is needed that addresses the above problems by reducing physical handling of the birds from the hatchery stage through the kill and production stage.